Transient Kinetics of Slag Metal Reactions

The kinetics of slag metal reactions are complex and often transient, in the sense that interfacial area, the equilibrium driving force, temperature gradients, and fluid properties are changing with time. This highly transient behavior is challenging to model using simple ordinary differential equations, and new theoretical approaches must be developed to deal with the complexity associated with these systems. Three examples from recent studies are described to illustrate methods of analyzing transient behavior. The first is desulfurization of steel in ladle metallurgy where the equilibrium driving force is changing with time, and the second is the case of reacting droplets in oxygen steelmaking where “bloating” of the droplet has a dramatic effect on the kinetics. The third is in the case of reactions between an alloy droplet and slag that result in large changes in interfacial area due to surface tension driven flows.